Well, so much for planning the mobile phone email posting. There was no mobile phone reception at the camp. May be that’s a good thing since if I posted from the camp, everything I write will be about how bad the camp was, because that’s what I’m like – when I’m there, I complain to no end even if I later decide that it’s good. Well, this time it’s actually bad enough that even in retrospect, I still have quite a lot to complain about.
The first day
First it’s the cabin. From outside it looks alright, but look how small the room actually is. There’s only one shower and one toilet for ten people too. I suppose it’s still better than having to walk through muddy areas late at night to go to the toilet like in biology camp, but that’s probably the best thing I can say.
As for the activities, well they’re alright. Canoeing wasn’t too bad except for that I was with someone who complained a lot, but who am I to complain about someone else complaining. It didn’t help that we didn’t paddle at the same pace so the canoe kept turning, and we were so slow that the instructor had to pull us along.
The food wasn’t good, but even then I ate quite a lot. I’ll have to say that the food at biology camp was much better. I don’t understand why the camp gave us really dilute cordial. They might as well just give us water – who wants to drink food colouring? The cordial was so dilute that it doesn’t taste of anything, but the colour was strong.
After dinner, there was the dance party. I don’t like dancing and I’m not that good either, but luckily I had a scarf with me, so I just waved it around, and many people cheered. Someone told me that they were just making fun of me – that’s probably true, but I didn’t need to be told that! I’m used to people saying things like this, or may be I should say that I’ve always knew that people did this, whether anyone actually said so or not. Of course, for each person that says something like that, there are many more who’ll tell me it’s alright. I even got into the finals – I must’ve been the one with the most props: I had a scarf, a torch and a whistle. The teacher who hated my whistling didn’t hear it though. She even said that my dancing was good. I surely got a lot of attention!
The second day
Let’s start the day with a random photo before breakfast. It seems like that many people want me to take photos of them just because they know about this site. Here you go! Happy now?
The first activity for my group on the second day was hiking – which I didn’t mind too much, since I actually quite like hiking. It was really hot though. We walked all the way to the information centre, but it was actually an information centre as in the ones with posters and museum type stuff. I was expecting people in the information centre.
After lunch, I was sitting on my own, reading a book. A teacher came over and went like “are you OK?”, and I thought, how random is that? I said yes, and she said “you seem very quiet, quieter than usual” – I replied “but I’m normally quiet” and then I realised that I’m not – I’ve been the noisiest person in my physics class ever since I came to this school. Once again, I realise that I shouldn’t have blamed my previous school for treating me as if I was still the way I was when I first went there – if I can’t keep up with myself, I can’t expect anyone else to.
There was a wellbeing session in the afternoon. It started with yoga, which wasn’t too difficult. The relaxation, or rather sleeping session for many people including myself, was exactly what I needed. However, I woke up because I cooled down too much, so I curled up under my towel and sat next to a candle – someone said I looked like the girl who sold matches. I went to get my jacket, and quite a lot of people asked me if I was hot in that jacket – it was a warm day. I was actually still cold even with the jacket on – the teacher who thought that I wasn’t alright when I was so quiet was right – I surely didn’t feel well. I sat down near the dining hall, and I ended up talking with two teachers. I actually told them that I’ve figured out most of my time table, and the chemistry teacher asked me when the chemistry lessons will be, and I thought, you’re the teacher, you’re supposed to know! I told him when I think the lessons are, and I hope that I’m right, otherwise I’ll look silly if the teacher remembers what I said (not like he will xD).
In the evening there was a county fair or whatever it’s called. Everyone went into groups and set up their own stalls selling goods or services – not with real money, just printed play money that we had to cut for ourselves, and they didn’t even give us scissors – of course, I had scissors so it didn’t matter. My group had the quoits stall – basically, throwing rings on a stick. It was such a popular stall. We had a really loyal customer too, and look how enthusiastic some people were. The other stalls were interesting too. There was the tattoo stall that gave a science teacher a tattoo that said science in Chinese (or may be it was supposed to be Japanese kanji) and the teacher didn’t even know what it said – when I told her what it meant, she was like “that’s probably because they can’t spell physics”. Some people had interesting tattoos. The hairdressers did interesting styles too – one teacher looked quite silly with blue and yellow hair and a skull tattoo, I even got a photo but I’m not putting that up. The ice cream stall people gave me a free ice cream, but I didn’t finish it – I probably shouldn’t have ate any of it since I wasn’t feeling well. Some people asked to take a photo with me – bad timing since I probably looked quite sick. It doesn’t help that I have a strange stare that makes me look silly in photos to start with – being sick makes me look even more dazed. I probably shouldn’t have stayed there since I wasn’t much help to my stall, although I did help bring a few customers (I remember how I pulled one of the teachers from the other side of the hall near the ice cream stall – someone from that stall was trying to get him to buy an ice cream – it was actually quite an interesting scene), and I provided scissors.
By the time I went back to my cabin, I knew that I definitely had a fever. I went to bed but the others were watching a DVD – I couldn’t sleep because they were laughing so loudly, but I was too tired to get up and ask them to be quiet.
The third day
I missed paintballing because I didn’t feel well. So much for all that talk about how to remove paint from clothes. I went to another wellbeing session instead, and I just sat there.
In the afternoon, I recovered enough to do rock climbing and European handball. I screamed at the others for all talking to me at once when I was climbing – I still have this problem when I start panicking when too many people talk to me at once. The handball wasn’t much fun – I don’t like ball games in general. I kept falling over. Once I got the ball for my team and then fell over trying to keep it, and a teacher who was on my team actually congratulated me for being so much help to the team. I seem to get a lot of attention from teachers, even the ones that I didn’t really know. This actually comes in handy at times. Sometimes I feel guilty that I tend to have a lot of trouble learning their names. Many teachers actually know my name somehow. Many of my classmates know me and I don’t remember their names either. This camp has been a great opportunity to meet some of the people at school. Really shows how I need to try harder at learning people’s names.
In the evening, we had the camp fires that were planned for the first night – they were postponed because of rain. Gathering sticks wasn’t easy – there were lots of bark on the floor, but not many sticks. My group’s fire wasn’t going so well, so we didn’t really manage to melt that many marshmallows, but I wasn’t hungry anyway. My torch came in handy on the way back to the cabins.
When I went back to the cabin, my group had the air condtioner on full blast. It was so cold that I went to ask the teachers for the remote. It was at least midnight by then – the others in my cabin were watching another DVD. Someone in my cabin said “the teachers are gonna kill you!”, so of course I argued back. I know that the teachers aren’t even going to get angry at me at all for that. Luckily enough, the teachers weren’t asleep yet, although I think I created quite a scene. This is probably a time when it comes in handy that I happen to get a lot of attention from teachers – they’ll definitely help me.
The fourth (and final) day
It seems like that by the time I asked to have the air conditioner turned down, I’ve already been in the cold for long enough to be sick again. I didn’t do the mountain biking because I felt dizzy. Some people probably thought that I couldn’t ride a bike.
After that, it was lunch time. I got a photo that shows how bad the fly situation at the camp is. Really, one of the worst things about camp is probably the flies and other insects.
After lunch, we waited for an hour before the buses came. The journey back to Sydney was a long one, and I was sleeping for most of the time. I’m so glad to be home. While some of the activities were actually fun, this camp is probably the one that I had the most to complain about.
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